He was a remarkable self-made man who, upon selling Carnegie Steel in 1901 to JP Morgan (birth of US Steel) on the basis of slip of paper accepting Carnegie's asking price (over $14 billion in 2013) and a handshake, became one of the richest of men.  Carnegie then devoted the rest of his life to giving away his immense wealth to worthy causes he believed in, such as reading, study and education. For example, Carnegie built over 2500 magnificent libraries for the public and for universities. Morgan later told Carnegie that he would have paid much more for Carnegie Steel if he had asked for it.